Author Salman Rushdie delivered a sobering warning about escalating political violence in the United States during the Sundance Film Festival premiere of “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie” on Sunday. The documentary, directed by Alex Gibney, serves as a cinematic companion to Rushdie’s memoir detailing the horrific 2022 attack that left him blind in one eye and with permanent injuries.
Rushdie characterized his near-fatal stabbing as symptomatic of broader societal dangers, stating that ‘everybody’s in danger now’ in America’s increasingly volatile climate. His comments coincided with recent fatal shootings of protesters by federal agents and an assault on Congressman Maxwell Frost at the same festival.
The film incorporates graphic footage of the Chautauqua, New York attack where 24-year-old Hadi Matar stabbed Rushdie 15 times on stage. It also explores the historical context of the 1989 fatwa issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, which forced Rushdie into decade-long hiding after declaring his novel ‘The Satanic Verses’ blasphemous.
Rushdie connected his personal ordeal to wider patterns of authoritarian violence targeting cultural institutions. ‘For the authoritarian, culture is the enemy,’ he observed, citing current attacks on journalism, universities, and literature through book bans and rhetorical assaults. The author specifically referenced the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education and immigration enforcement operations that have resulted in civilian casualties.
Despite the documentary’s original focus on his personal trauma, Rushdie acknowledged its unintended relevance to contemporary political tensions. ‘I’m now beginning to think that maybe the film is here at a kind of apposite moment,’ he noted, suggesting that all citizens now face similar risks of ideological violence.
Hadi Matar, sentenced to 25 years for the attack, admitted to barely reading Rushdie’s controversial work while claiming the author had ‘attacked Islam.’ The documentary juxtaposes this limited engagement with the profound consequences it inspired, examining how political manipulation transforms cultural disagreements into violent acts.
The Sundance screening occurred against a backdrop of heightened security concerns, reflecting the very dangers Rushdie described in his warning about America’s deteriorating civic landscape.